Deeper Truths (Lesson 2 of 12) Lord's Prayer Part 2 of 2

 Deeper Truths: A study featuring lessons from Kenneth Bailey’s book,

 Jesus through Middle Eastern Eyes

 

A 12-week study: This on 5 March 2026

Lesson 2: The Lord’s Prayer (pt 2)

Given on Zoom

Led by Bob Mendelsohn

 

Preliminaries

Last week we began our study of the six foci of interest to Kenneth Bailey regarding culture and Christianity, and if you will, we got our feet wet in his style of considerations. Today I want to show you a bit more about his style, especially his emphasis or at least his preliminary study tip I labelled structure. 

There were a couple of questions that came to us after our session last Thursday, and I will answer those.

From there we will consider more about the Lord’s Prayer itself and what God wants us to know about HIM in these dark and darkening days.

Then finally tonight we will end with time for new Questions and maybe Answers, so while we are learning together, please write down your questions and your own takeaways, which you might share aloud or privately when we are finished.

That’s a lot to get through, so let’s pray. 

Prayer

The structure

I mentioned that Bailey loves structure. You might think he’s a Civil engineer, but no, he was a Presbyterian minister, then Canon Theologian of the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh, and founded the Institute for Middle Eastern New Testament Studies in Beirut.

He died 10 years ago. He spent 40 years teaching in the Middle East, offering unique insights into Jesus' parables and Paul's writings.

Ziggurat

You know of the ancient towers, like we often see representing the Tower of Babel, with a large footprint then floor after floor going up the tower with less and less space assigned. This is what AI made for me as a model of the Babel tower (share screen)

 

Note the width and length on the base appreciably shrinks with each ascending floor to the top. We know, by the way, from the biblical story that the tower was never completed, but this is an artist’s rendering. 

Now I show you this image to help you understand how I see Bailey’s thinking. He often alludes to “prophetic homilies.” He gives three examples of those building blocks of rhetorical style and structure. The second is most like this tower.

First, what many of us know as Hebrew parallelism. That’s where an idea is floated by the author and then, without blinking, repeated either with similarity, with development, or with opposition. For instance, Psalm 24, “The earth is the Lords, and all that is in it.” Or “A wise son brings joy to his father, but a foolish son brings grief to his mother".” That’s antithetical parallelism.

The second device Bailey speaks of is inverted parallelism. This is more like the tower I showed you a moment ago. Ideas are arranged in an ABBA or ABCBA pattern, where the first and last lines correspond, placing the main focus in the middle. My favourite example of that is the last 27 chapters, that is the 2^nd half of the prophet Isaiah. 

A: God’s Sovereignty (40:1-31) – "Comfort, comfort my people," announcing God's glory, and the insignificance of nations.

B: The Call to Return (41–48) – Focus on Cyrus as an agent of release, the end of Babylonian exile, and the futility of idols.

C: The Servant of the LORD (49:1–57:21) – The centre of the chiasm. Focuses on the Suffering Servant (who takes on the sins of the people. In fact, 52:13-53:12 is the definitive centre of that centre passage. It would be impossible to miss this if you are reading this with humility.

B': The Return and New Covenant (58–65) – Return to Jerusalem, call to righteousness, rebuilding, and the promise of a new heaven and earth.

A': God’s Final Sovereign Judgment (66:1-24) – Final judgment on the wicked and the glory of the new Zion, echoing the initial themes of comfort and divine sovereignty.

I share with you this from a biblical study I recently gave on Matthew 23 and the 7 Woes Yeshua announces. They seem to follow this tower approach.

The third style Bailey sees in the Scripture he calls ‘step parallelism’. It would be labelled with ABC ABC and he mentioned an example from Isaiah 28.

I mention these three structural considerations because as a student of the Bible, you should be aware of literary devices as well as the ‘deeper meanings’ as we often highlight. As I mentioned last week, the rhetoric should not be primary, but it is of interest how the biblical authors have used these literary devices to keep us tuned in. 

 

QUESTIONS from last week:

1)   Could you share a few similarities of the traditional synagogue prayers “Tefillah” with The Lord’s Prayer? 

         The Tefillah, the standard prayers of the Jewish people are ever developing. It is highly unlikely that you would visit a synagogue anywhere in the world in 2026 where a “Prayer for the Soldiers of the IDF” is not prayed on a weekly basis. Certainly they pray that at Magein Avot Synagogue on Waterloo Street in Singapore. And here in Sydney, and in Nashville. But that was unknown until after 1948. I mention that to highlight how ‘standard’ prayers are ever developing. After 9/11 American prayers changed, that is, they were augmented. Similarly after 7 October 2 and a half years ago. And here in Sydney after the Bondi attack in December. People add prayers to the normal prayer service maybe now more than ever.

So if you think that Hebrew prayers have always been the same, well, sorry to disappoint you. There are Liberal siddurim (a siddur is a standard prayer book) that include prayers for homosexuals, for and against certain political scenarios, including Israel, etc. 

There IS a fairly standard Amidah, the 18 (Shemone Esrei) but that was even changed at the time of the First Century. Last week I mentioned the opening words of the Kaddish prayer. Yitkadal v’yitkadash sh’mei raba. Very similar to the opening of the Lord’s Prayer. 

The themes of the Lord’s prayer are relevant and parallel to considerations and themes in the Amidah, for sure. But the 18 takes about 15 minutes to pray, while the Lord’s prayer takes about 45 seconds. 

2)   Why did Yeshua inaugurate praying in Aramaic thus setting aside a sacred culture & language?

Did Yeshua set aside his culture and language by praying in Aramaic? If I ask you on this zoom call to say a prayer, how many of you would speak Mandarin to the Lord? How many would pray in Hebrew or Aramaic? I imagine, since the standard on this call in our conversation to one another is in English, then we would lift our voice to the Almighty in English. And would it be American English? Or British English? Or perhaps Australian English? 

So to answer your question, I shout, ‘NO!” Yeshua did not "set aside" a sacred culture or language in a rebellious sense, but rather brought prayer out of formal, Hebrew-only Temple ritual into the everyday, common language of the people—Aramaic—to emphasize intimacy, immediacy, and accessibility to God. Aramaic was what we might call the lingua franca and the native language of Galilee and Judea during the first century, making it the natural, "heart" language of his ministry. Aramaic-speaking Jews in the first century still used Hebrew for the purpose of prayer, and so Jesus was praying, and teaching his disciples to pray, in their own vernacular (p.95).

You see, the vernacular, the normal switches from age to age and from place to place. The King James Version was not the first Bible in English. And what about German. The orthodox Jewish leadership was scandalized when Moses Mendelssohn inspired and collaborated with David Friedlander in publishing the first Jewish siddur (prayer book) in the German language. Languages change and often increase their reach, not limiting them.

On To our study tonight

The book is made up of six parts, in order: (1) the birth of Jesus, (2) the Beatitudes, (3) the Lord’s Prayer, (4) the dramatic actions of Jesus, (5) Jesus and women, and (6) the parables of Jesus. 

Tonight, we turn to his chapters number 9 and 10, The Lord’s Prayer: God’s Kingdom and our Bread and also Our Sins and Evil.

The context of the chapter in Bailey is Matthew’s account of the prayer Yeshua taught the disciples to pray. And that account is within a larger account named The Sermon on the Mount. 

He said, pray then in this way, “Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. And lead us, not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, for Thine is the Kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.”

That’s a lot to unpack, but Bailey helps us with subdividing the prayer, and we look at four crucial ideas tonight. The Kingdom of God, Our bread, Our sins, and Evil itself. No small categories to unpack. But remember, each week we are looking at particular ideas and I’m hoping that you will want to learn much more on something, and that you will write that down, commit it to the Lord in prayer, ask Him for help and ideas and study more about that in the week to come. 

We learned last week that Prayer is acknowledging that there is a God; and you are not He. It is not silent only.

Thy kingdom come

We jump in on Thy Kingdom come. Bailey calls this the 2nd petition. If God is really king, then why do we have to ask God to be king, and rule? Why did we have to ask God to hallow his name last week? So that we remembered OUR role in sanctifying his name rather than debasing and profaning his name. 

So when we ask God to bring his Kingdom, we are assigning ourselves a role in being subjects to the King. We are saying, Lord, you are the boss; I’m not. You are the King; I’m the subject. What you say goes. 

Last weekend, I was waiting for the bus outside the station. It was scheduled for 11:04. I began checking my watch at 10:55 to ensure that I would not miss it. Then at 11. Then at 11:05, and 11:10, and I kept waiting for the bus to come. My impatience didn’t make it come. The MRT at Orchard Road has a schedule, but my insistence of its being on time does not make that itinerary stick. It comes when it comes. Usually on time, to be sure, but I’m not in charge. 

So it is with the Kingdom; it comes when it comes, not when I demand it to come. 

We have an unusual world with democracies in these days. Certainly different than the world of AD30. Empires and what we call today dictators rule differently. Yeshua is teaching us to pray that God’s Kingdom come at a time and place of his choosing, not of mine. It’s not my vocal activism that brings the Kingdom. It’s not my ‘get out the vote’ postcard or placard which results if God’s governance. Yeshua said, “My kingdom is not of this world.” It’s not from this world.

Bailey stresses the paradox of the kingdom: 1) now and not yet. 2) near yet far off and 3) the unknowability of the timing. So really, those three are one. Yeshua is King and the time and place are up to the Father and not to you or me or all of us together. 

Bailey then suggests that the four views on the Kingdom (eschatological, mystical, political and the church) all have a measure of the truth. 

Let me say this clearly: Where Yeshua is, there is the Kingdom.

Is that church? Is that your political hero or party? Is that the end times for which you long?  Listen, where Yeshua is, there is the Kingdom, and you are his subject. Amen?

Thy will be done on earth

The 3^rd petition of the Lord’s prayer is this, “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” Honestly, I think this is parallelism and is actually Petition 2b. Whatever makes the Kingdom royal and coming, is the same as what makes God’s will be done on earth as it is in heaven. I won’t change the numbers that Bailey uses, but if I rewrote his book, I would make this 2B. Bailey even says, “the king’s desires will be carried out because he is the king.” (page 117)

What is God’s will? The Scriptures teach us the following:

1)   Our sanctification (1 Thes. 4.3)

2)   Good, acceptable and perfect (Romans 12.2)

3)   Give thanks in everything (1 Thes. 5.18)

4)   Do justly, love mercy, walk humbly with God (Micah 5.8)

5)   Everyone to come to knowledge of the Truth (1 Tim. 2.4)

I commend to you this website on God’s will with international preacher and author, John Piper: https://www.desiringgod.org/messages/what-is-the-will-of-god-and-how-do-we-know-it

I do have personal problems with Bailey’s conclusion that this also includes ecoglory or maintaining the earth and how some could use this thinking to lead to political greenies, but I won’t at all major on that worry.

My view is that God’s King will have his way and that will not only be in heaven, but also here on earth. If we are members of God’s Kingdom, his will in our lives will be done on earth. Do you want to hear God answer that prayer? Then you get to accomplish his will in your own life. And to that I commit myself as well. 

Give us bread

The fourth petition is “Give us this day our daily bread.” Immediately I think of manna in the wilderness. I think of Yeshua’s comments in John chapter 6 where he teaches the multitudes who end up leaving him with the disciples. Manna is a funny word, as it translates to ‘what is it please?’ When I was a child I was taught that whatever we thought the manna was (like chocolate chip cookies or a steak sandwich), that that is what it became.  But of course, that’s not what Scipture teaches. We Jews complained in the wilderness about the lack of meat and God swarmed us with quail in overabundance. 

Remember the children of Israel received daily bread six days of the week in the wilderness. And on Friday mornings we collected a double amount, since we were not allowed to gather manna on Shabbat. 

Bread is the general term to indicate food, and in the Jewish tradition when prayers are made for all kinds of things we include everything under the titlle 'lechem' or bread.  Thus breaking bread means 'eating together.'

Bailey has a great excurses on this one-off word used in that prayer and his Arabic backdrop, and Syrian study. The mystery of what the Greek word that lies behind the all-too-familiar English rendering of “daily” bread may mean is elucidated by appeal to the Old Syriac version of the Gospels, which uses the adjective ameno which means “lasting, never ceasing” (p.121). I really like his conclusion. No matter what the word means, we are asking God for his supply in our lives and that’s to his praise. In the same way the people of Israel depended on the Almighty for wilderness supply a singular recognition of our dependence on his supply in all our existence continues to this day. 

I know there are folks in the Body of Messiah who worry about what they will eat or drink or with what they will be clothed. In that sermon in which we read the Lord’s prayer, we read, “if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, will He not much more clothe you? You of little faith! ³¹ Do not worry then, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear for clothing?’ ³² For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things; for ^ayour heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. ³³ But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

Friends, ‘fear of God’s supply” is not for the faithful. Seek first God and his Kingdom and his right living… and supply will come. Amen?

Forgive us our sins(debts) as we forgive

The fifth petition in the Lord’s Prayer is that God would forgive us. Now this is a mammoth issue and basic to anyone who knows their own sin. We know our own wrongdoing. We know our need. The psalmist said, “If You, LORD, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? But there is forgiveness with You, That You may be feared. (Ps. 130.3-4) 

But here’e the rub; we can’t really demand forgiveness. It’s really a petition, a pleading. Would you please forgive us? 

The s’lach lanu prayer in the 18, the Amidah, we read

“Forgive us our Father for we have sinned, pardon us our King for we have wilfully transgressed, for You pardon and forgive. Blessed are You, O Lord, Who is gracious and ever willing to forgive.”

Of note as Bailey tells us, there is no mention of others, no mention of making right with others in this prayer. But Yeshua makes it clear, if you don’t forgive others, you won’t be forgiven. (Matt. 6.15)

Sociologists make it clear that when someone has offended us, and they move on or even die, that doesn’t immediately clear the slate. In fact, if we have unforgiveness it only affects US.

In addition to making impressive contributions to scholarship and our understanding of the New Testament, Bailey wrestles with difficult aspects of the application of the text, such as the relationship between the call to Christians to forgive and the need to identify and stand against injustice (pp.126-127). This is such a great petition. He emphasizes that ‘forgiveness’ is not saying, ‘never mind’ (page 126). Don’t miss how he emphasizes justice in this section.

Remember Yeshua’s words from the cross, “Father, forgive them, for they don’t know what they are doing.” (Luke 23.34) Bailey says, “this is not the cry of the weak, but the awesome voice of the strong.” (page  125) God’s heart is to forgive. God’s idea is to forgive. Is it our idea? 

In other words, if God intends to forgive, who am I to stand in God’s way or in the way of the freedom that forgiveness. In light of that, Yeshua’s story of the unforgiving steward is substantial. A man owes a lot of money and the owner of the debt forgives him. Think that the debt is a million dollars. Then the forgiven man finds someone who owes him 20 bucks and he throws him in debtor’s prison. Listen to what Yeshua says, in Matthew 18.

“Then summoning him, his lord said to him, ‘You wicked slave, I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. Should you not also have had mercy on your fellow slave, in the same way that I had mercy on you?’ And his lord, moved with anger, handed him over to the torturers until he should repay all that was owed him.” (18.31-34)

Unforgiveness will result in our own headaches, our own loss, honest-to-goodness torment. The author of Hebrews says, “See to it that no one comes short of the grace of God; that no root of bitterness springing up causes trouble, and by it many be defiled.” (12.15)

Dear sisters and brothers, release people of their debts; forgive and you will be forgiven. There is life. God loved the world so much that he gave. Won’t you do the same?

Deliver us from evil

The sixth and final petition is about deliverance. There is great conversation about God tempting us (which he does not- James 1.13) vs God testing us (which he does- Genesis 22 [The Akedah]). I like to pause after the beginning clause, “And lead us”, then continue, “not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” This is actually a cry of a child, or a man without a GPS, asking for help in life, for guidance. Again James helps us here. 

Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect ²result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and ¹without reproach, and it will be given to him. But he must ask in faith without any doubting.” (James 1.2-6)

God knows what he is doing in this prayer. He’s teaching us to trust him. You know there are 31,102 verses in the Bible. Do you know the middle one? It’s Psalm 118.8

ט֗וֹב לַחֲס֥וֹת בַּיהוָ֑ה מִ֝בְּטֹ֗חַ בָּאָדָֽם

 

It is better to trust Yahweh than to put any confidence in man.  Wow, if that’s not the whole story, I don’t know of a better one. 

God will lead, will you let him?

I remember our first family vacation in Europe in 2003, and we were in Vienna. My son and older daughter wanted to attend a band while my wife and I wanted to take the younger daughter to a special Austrian folk festival. We got in the car and we had a map, yes, paper and turned pages. My son was guiding us. We approached an intersection and he told me to turn right. I thought, and said out loud, no I think it’s straight. He said, “You can go straight, but you will be wrong.” 

He taught me and all of us an important lesson that day. A guide is only as good as our faith or trust in him. Sure enough, my son was right; I was wrong and we almost missed our folk festival. Lesson learned? Maybe I should say, “I’m still learning.”

What about you? Can you say, “Lead us, not into temptation”? And the parallel idea, “But deliver us from evil.” That’s confidence. That’s the fulcrum of the Bible. That’s my hope. Tonight and tomorrow and from now on. 

 

Five Final Summary Thoughts from tonight:

1)    The King will rule over us when we surrender our lordship of our lives and live as his subject

2)   Where Yeshua is, there is the Kingdom

3)   God will supply; will you trust him in all matters?

4)   God will forgive, in proportion to the forgiveness we extend to others.

5)   Faith is the assurance of things hoped for that are not yet apparent. Without faith it’s impossible to please God. With faith, you can move mountains of doubt, of fear, of resentment, and share faith, with one another.

 

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Questions that have come since I wrote this:

1)   Why are Jews known as Messianic Jews when they receive Jesus as their personal Savior.  Are they not known as Christians? For us Chinese, when we received Jesus as our personal Savior, we are called Christians.

The term “Christian’ was first used of believers in Acts chapter 11 in Antioch. It means and meant “followers of Messiah.” Or “little Christs.”  It was a term of ill-repute and the believers wore it as a badge of honour. Over time, and through history especially in the 4^th Century under Constantine, Christian, the term, became associated with the conquerors and the empire of Rome. It meant a loyal subject of the emperor.

For modern Jewish people, there are two categories of people: us and them. Us being the Jews and them being everyone else. Since most Jewish people live in Western and thus Christianised countries, the ‘other’ is the Christian. 

So when a Jew becomes a follower of Yeshua, he or she is a Christian, just like the Chinese or the Indian or the Siberian. But because of the evils done in the name of Christianity, over the last thousand years, and especially by non-Jews at Jews, like the Holocaust, the Inquisition, the pogroms and the like, Jewish followers of Jesus prefer to dissociate from the historic Church which allowed for or even participated in those evils and use the term Messianic. The term itself is EXACTLY THE SAME as Christian. It means a follower of Messiah, but in the 20^th and now 21^st Century, the term does not have the stigma that Christian has in the minds of Jewish people. 

 

2)   Could you distinguish modern Judaism from early Judaism?  

Modern Judaism began in AD 70. I’m not sure what you mean by “early Judaism.” (Is that Abrahamic, Mosaic, Davidic, with or without Tabernacle/ Temple?) The Temple fell in AD 70 and the leadership had to come to grips first with their loss and experience the grief associated from denial to acceptance. But then they had a responsibility to come up with alternative views on God and his relationship with the Jewish people, with the situation of priesthood and offerings, with a new view on atonement and forgiveness and so much more. We were at the loss of land, and since that was 1/3 of the promise in the covenant with Abraham in Genesis 12, now what do we say? What do we do? How shall we now live after AD 70?

The development of the Talmud took on significant importance, and I aver that Judaism never looked back again. The role of the rabbi in village or city became more significant that the role of the priest. Teaching replaced worship. The pulpit replaced the altar. Learning and the academy replaced sacrifices. Prayers at certain times of day took the names of the morning, afternoon and evening sacrifices. 

That was almost 2,000 years ago and religions have ccome and gone since then, and Judaism should really be labelled Judaisms, as there are many of them that come and go through the centuries. Remember the names Herodians, Sadducees, scribes, Sabbatai Zvi, Essenes--- so many more, that follow this one or that one. Even Zionism is a new religio-political phenomenon. 

Judaism is not static; it is ever changing.

3)   What’s the Zionist belief?

Zionism is the belief that the Jewish people should have a homeland and since 1895, it should be in what we today call Israel. Zion of course is the biblical term for the homeland of the Jewish people. It was originally Canaan filled with 7 nation-states (Hittites, Jebusites, etc) and was the place given in covenant by God to Abraham and his descendants. Specifically to Isaac, not Ishmael, Jacob, not Esau, and then after the Exodus, to the 9 ½ tribes west of the Jordan River. The other 2 ½ tribes set up residence east of the Jordan.

There has been a longing within the Jewish people for centuries to return to the homeland after Rome kicked us out in AD 135. That longing was championed by some serious Bible believers over time, but most recently in the XIX by Anglicans and Presbyterians in the UK. Then in 1890s the conference held in Basel, Switzerland is the focal genesis of the latest movement that resulted in the Balfour Declaration, the attempts by France and England after WWI to set up a homeland, and finally after the League of Nations couldn’t get it done, the United Nations made it happen in May 1948.

I believe God is a Zionist. He wants the Jewish people to inherit the land he promised 4,000 years ago to Abraham. 

I also believe that there is room for Arabs and peoples of the world to live among the Jews there. Being pro-Zion or pro-Israel does NOT mean being anti-Arab. 

We should put down our flags and pick up the cross if we ever intend to get along with ‘the other.’

2 million Arabs live in Israel today. They are not Jews. They are likely not Muslim, although some are. Religion and politics rarely are good together and therefore, it’s a quagmire of trouble in the Land to this day. 

 

 

Other questions tonight?

Deeper Truths: A 12-week study ...this is 1 of 12, taken from The Lord's Prayer

 Deeper Truths: A study featuring lessons from Kenneth Bailey’s book,

 Jesus through Middle Eastern Eyes

 

A 12-week study from February 2026

Lesson 1: The Lord’s Prayer (pt 1)

Given on Zoom

 

Introduction of Hope

Shalom friends, both old and new, that is, real peace be yours in your life in Singapore, in Germany, in the US, and here in Australia. I can honestly wish that for you in a troubled world full of uncertainty and pain, full of anxiety and multinational hostility. In a world often bereft of God and his compassion, how are we to find real peace? 

Many of us think that the world of 2026 is like no other time in history. We have CNN and Sky News battling for us to believe their version of truth. There are so many wars and rumours of wars throughout the world. We learned last month that the former Prime Minister of South Korea Han Duck-soo, who served from 2022 to 2025 was sentenced to 23 years in prison for his role in a failed martial law declaration. You might have seen the news in December when 15 Jews on Sydney’s iconic Bondi Beach were massacred while celebrating the Festival of Lights, Hanukkah together. Mexico has its own trouble this week with drug cartels retaliating and battling after the murder of El Mencho Oseguera Cervantes. This week we mark the 4^th anniversary of Russia’s latest invasion of Ukraine and the seemingly never-ending war takes a back seat to other important matters like football and Milan’s winter Olympics. 

I aver that the earthquakes and violent cyclones, the school shootings and governmental inability to get along is not actually increasing. We simply have more news agencies with a need to find more troubles and pains and share those for the sake of more clicks and keeping folks coming back to learn more about fears and resentments and how bad the world really is. 

But that is not what I’m going to teach you about over these next 3 months. Each week, using the book by Kenneth Bailey as a guide, but not as our only information, we will dig deeper into the Jesus of the Gospels and the Jesus who leads us even this day, looking through a glass, sometimes a magnifying glass or a telescope, and sometimes a microscope, to assist us. At some vistas we will pause and ponder; at other times, we will walk carefully and fully, but not linger. 

Introduction of how to study

Each week, I plan to conclude with at least five significant takeaways for you from our study. When any of these thoughts trigger your interest to stop longer and dig even deeper or when I recommend a book or article or even a YouTube video, please use a pen or a computer or a crayon, and make sure you write yourself a note. Then in the 167 hours until we meet again here on Zoom next week, do yourself a favour—pause and ponder again. Ask God to show you what he wants you to learn about a facet of the Gospel or an interesting tidbit of biblical information. 

Meditation is the word here. But to get to that, you must stop and listen to the data again. You could speak it out loud. Then break that sentence or that thought down word by word. Then ‘chew’ on each word that jumps off the page for you. That’s how we meditate biblically. 

I use the example of walking down the footpath near Bras Basah metro station. You smell the bakery nearby. You are drawn to it. Ah, yes, you found it. But that doesn’t do you any good, at least not yet. Then you buy the bagel and it’s now yours. Good job. But you still haven’t taken it in yet. OK, you take a bite. Nice flavour. But it’s still not ‘in you.’ Then you swallow it and now it’s in you. Here’s what I see in that illustration. 

The smelling of the bagel is being attracted to the Bible.

The buying of the bagel is when you read from the Bible.

The biting into the bagel is memorizing a phrase or a sentence of the Bible.

The swallowing of the bite—that’s meditating on the Word. That’s when it’s in you.

I’m hoping that each week we will find good information in the text. I’m hoping that you will hear something that will make you desire to be with Yeshua that much more over the next week. And that this information will become life formation in you. I like the old Anglican prayer before the listening to the Word of God which asks God to help readers "hear, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest" Scripture. It focuses on finding comfort and hope in the Word. May God help us tonight so to do.

Who am I?

You know a little bit about me. Let me take a few minutes to let you in on my history then we will get into the texts for tonight. I am the 3^rd (of 3) child of American Jews whose grandparents were all born in Europe, mostly Eastern Europe. My grandparents were poor. They lived in apartments or small houses. By the time my parents married and started having children, World War 2 had just ended, so I’m a baby boomer. We lived in modest, middle-class homes. I had two powerful epicentres of my life: 1) my school life and 2) my synagogue. At each I learned and scholarship was very important to my family. At 13 I had my Bar Mitzvah and since I was a very committed Orthodox Jew, I took my celebration very seriously. I chanted most of the prayers offered on any Shabbat; I read about 3 chapters of Torah and another half chapter of the book of Kings. All in Hebrew. 

I was delighted to be done with the event, for which I’d been training for well over a year. But unlike most of my peers, I continued to learn with rabbis and study the Scriptures and the history and culture of our people. At 16 years old, I became even more devout that my family, switched synagogues so I could attend a more nearby one, with more religious propriety and a higher mechitzah to separate my teenage eyes from the ladies of the synagogue. Not that this stopped me from lusting, but someone must have felt it would be successful.

Then in 1971 at 19 years of age, some bold Jesus people like you saw in the movie a couple of years back called “The Jesus Revolution” shared the Gospel on the streets of Kansas City and within days I prayed the sinner’s prayer to become a “Jesus freak.” My family was shocked when I told them that night. I was kicked out of my parents’ home for the first time ever. But God’s people helped me find a new apartment, then a new job, and a new life in Christ—all within 12 hours. I’m still amazed at God’s eternal supply. 

I’m sure over the next 12 weeks I will tell you more of my story, which happened 55 years ago, and then some other stories through the decades. But I’ll leave it there. 

As I was invited to be your teacher in these lessons, I was reminded of the words of the man who took over for John Stott at All Souls and also the Langham Partnership in England. His name is Christopher Wright, and I’ve read almost every line of his books for years. He wrote about his scholastic inabilities in the book Knowing Jesus through the Old Testament. He said, “I felt my own amateur status, which needs to be clear…I have been acutely aware that to write anything at all on the New Testament in general or Jesus in particular is like crawling through a minefield under cross-fire. However, with the help of several friends of undoubted New Testament scholarship, I have been bold enough to crawl on, trying to take into account as much of current scholarship as was feasible.” (page x)

His humility is genuine. One day I hope to reach that in my life. But for now, you have me and we together can learn and mark and inwardly digest the words of Yeshua, one story, one prayer, one event, one teaching at a time. 

The Bailey Book itself

The book is made up of six parts, in order: (1) the birth of Jesus, (2) the Beatitudes, (3) the Lord’s Prayer, (4) the dramatic actions of Jesus, (5) Jesus and women, and (6) the parables of Jesus. The contents of these parts are in the form of textual studies with cultural-based interpretations. There are thirty-two chapters in all. The author’s style is clear. He first discusses pertinent textual structural and literary features, then provides a commentary on the text under discussion, and concludes each chapter with a clear summary of the salient features discussed.

Tonight, we turn to his chapters number 7 and 8, The Lord’s Prayer: God our Father and God’s Holiness.

The context of the chapter in Bailey is Matthew’s account of the prayer Yeshua taught the disciples to pray. And that account is within a larger account named The Sermon on the Mount. I’m not privy to whether this took place on one occasion or whether it is a compilation of several shorter teaching sessions, but what is significant is how Matthew recorded this. Note the end of Matthew chapter 5 and the beginning of chapter 6. We read in 5:48 “Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” Then Chapter 6 begins with “Beware of practicing your righteousness before men to be noticed by them; otherwise you have no reward with your Father who is in heaven.”

The words of Yeshua are clear—live a holy life, but then immediately we see that our perfect, righteous life needs to be directed correctly. If you want people to notice, you will be able to get their attention, but it’s not what God wants. It is in that context that Yeshua teaches about three actions of righteousness: giving alms (we might say giving to the poor), praying and fasting. 

It is assumed that Yeshua wants us, each of us, to give to the poor. He wants each of us to pray. He wants each of us to fast. Those are standard Jewish, first-Century actions of righteous people. Jews back then, and to this day, see those as proper and vital for holy people. By the way this coming Monday is a Fast Day in the Jewish religion, as that evening begins the festival of Purim, the story of Esther and Mordecai remembered around the world.

So within that normalcy of righteousness, Yeshua raises the stakes and amplifies the actions he wants from us. It’s all about the attitude and perspective he wants us to have. Look at Matthew 6, beginning in verse 5: “When you pray, you are not to be like the hypocrites for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on the street corners, so that they may be seen by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full. But you,” verse 6, “when you pray, go into your inner room. Close your door and pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.”

“And when you pray, do not use meaningless repetition as the Gentiles do, for they suppose that they will be heard for their many words. So do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.” 

Pray then in this way, “Our Father…”

Let’s stop there. 

Some comments on prayer itself. What is prayer anyway? Prayer is acknowledging that there is a God; and you are not He. It is often said, “Prayer is saying You are, and I’m not” to the Almighty. Or “He can and I cannot.” It’s often silent, it’s almost always introspective, but if that’s where you leave it, then you miss the object of our prayers. It is not silent only. One day after Yeshua finished praying, which in itself is pretty cool to ponder, the disciples asked him to teach them how to pray, even as John taught his apprentices. What did Yeshua reply?

“When you pray, say” (Luke 11.1) That means you get to speak, not just think, not just muse, although both of those are excellent to employ in worship. But also you are to say something.

And what followed that line was the Lukan account of the Lord’s Prayer. Fascinating isn’t it, that we title it “The Lord’s Prayer.” When it should really be called “The Disciples’ Prayer” We should reserve the Lord’s Prayer to be the label for what took place in Gethsemane just before the Crucifixion. But we don’t need to fight every battle, do we?

Yeshua in the Sermon on the Mount contrasts prayer by the disciples with prayers by others. First the very visible Jewish leadership who he says are hypocrites. He characterizes them as showy, loving being noticed by others, taking prominent seats inside or public displays, SO THAT THEY MIGHT BE SEEN BY MEN. To contrast what Yeshua wants for his people, he says to go ultra secret. Go into your room, even the inner room, close the door to prevent anyone from seeing you. Pray in secret. Even though Yeshua taught in Aramaic, we have this in Greek. The Greek word is krypto, like your favourite word puzzle, or Superman’s debilitating chemical force, it is so secret that no one would know it. The point is clear and exaggerated. Don’t be showy; be willing to be unseen. Human praise is at best insignificant. But is that all there is?

Not at all; it’s only the first of several points. 

Next, Yeshua teaches about the formulas used or the badgering of God by long prayers. Kenneth Bailey makes that point loud and clear on page 93 of our text. He quotes Ecclesiastes and says, “Let your words be few” (Eccl. 5.2)  

Now one of the things that you will find throughout Bailey’s book is his commitment to finding meaning in the STRUCTURE of the thing he is studying. Let me explain. And then let me give you my view on that. 

When Bailey talks about the birth narrative of Yeshua or parables or a prophecy in Isaiah, he will often discuss line by line, almost like we studied in English classic classes. Take a Shakespearean sonnet vs a Petrarchian sonnet. Is the rhyme sequence ABBA or ABAB? I remember chatting with a pastor here in Sydney about Kenneth Bailey, and he said something like this, “I like what Bailey does with the information about structure, but don’t forget it’s not the structure that informs us, it’s the Bible itself, specifically all that went before that is more important.” 

I like that. Perhaps you have written a song or a poem, when you write a sermon or a lesson, perhaps for children or youth, you probably have some initial ideas and some words that work together. But the algorithm of structure which you want to employ should never outweigh the actual words of the poetry. The rhythm of the drumbeat should never outweigh the words of the song. How you say something matters, to be sure. But WHAT you say is seriously what will remain. 

Think about the psalms. We have many superscripts in the Bible, “For the choir director.” or “A maskil of the sons of Korah.” Or “A psalm of David” or the odd one like Psalm 34, “A Psalm of David when he feigned madness before Abimelech, who drove him away and he departed.” When there is a “Song of Ascent” I’m pretty sure there would have been a melody and perhaps percussion involved. But we today, now thousands of years later, are not privy to what that sounded like. That’s both disappointing and informing. It’s your words which will remain, long after you are gone. Let us keep them clear and clean; let us speak truth and then when those ‘songs’ or ‘poems’ or lessons are left, we will be glad in God. Amen?

All that to say, I appreciate Bailey’s evaluations of the structure on so many levels, but it’s not the most significant or relevant item to notice. 

Remember, it is God’s Word and God’s heart which inform the words of Yeshua. Both all that has gone before and been written before, and what Yeshua saw the Father doing, that’s what inform him in his life and ministry. (John 5.19)

Back to prayer. I love that Pastor Joyce and the committee which invited me to speak with you wanted to start with the chapters on the Lord’s Prayer. We see God’s heart through the words of the Saviour here. And that it is Aramaic has some bearing, but not too much, on the prayer itself. 

A word, if I might, for some of you who want to know the ‘original’ meaning of a word, usually in Hebrew or Greek. And you find the Strong’s Concordance of the Bible and now you are dangerous. You find a word like ‘shalom’ or ‘baruch’ and all the meanings of the words come into play. Shalom meaning peace or wholeness, even completion, or in use when doubled, we read in Isaiah ‘perfect’ peace. (26.3) Now with all those alternate possibilities, you and Strong’s come up with new renderings, new meanings, and here’s when it goes wacky, “all the other translations get this wrong…” and you make a new Bible to suit your latest thinking.  Listen, there are thousands of more intelligent, more aware of ancient languages than you or me, more accomplished biblical technicians who have another meaning they ascribe to a text. Humility demands we listen. Self-awareness requires us to admit what we don’t really know. 

Father

God as Father… this is shocking to First Century Jews. Avinu in Hebrew. Abba in Aramaic. An intimate very personal sounding relative. Like in modern English, ‘daddy’… it’s just not the way Jews in Israel in those days would have approached or related to God. 

Bailey picks that up and shows us on pages 96-97 that a metaphor and a simile are useful in discussing God as Father, but NEVER is he addressed like Yeshua shows us in the Lord’s prayer. 

Don’t confuse modern Judaism with ancient Judaism. Moderns ascribe Fatherhood (and in the liberal Jewish world, sometimes titled Reform Judaism, also Motherhood) to God and make him intimate with us. But I dare say this is very different than the reality of First Century Jewish people. In fact, modern day Judaism is as close to biblical Judaism as Mormonism is to Christianity. They might use similar vocabulary like Bible or elders or church, but it’s not the same by any stretch of the imagination.

The book of Numbers, specifically in the Balaam story, uses this phrase “God is not a man that He should lie, nor a son of man, that He should repent; Has He said, and will He not do it? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?(Num. 23.19)

The obvious information the hireling prophet Balaam is communicating to Balak and anyone else who is listening is that God does what he says he will do, and nothing can stop him.  He is not a man, means in that sentence, that he won’t mess up and have to fix things later. He does what he says he will do. Full stop.

That includes cursing the Jewish people. But I remember this verse was part of my teenage Jewish training against Jesus being God. The key in biblical interpretation is ensuring you stay within the scope of the narrative, which when I was a teenager, I did not do. 

Similarly Bailey shared Hosea 11 where we read, “I am God and not man...I will not come to destroy” (vs. 9) That tender loving Father image (also from earlier in that chapter) is so helpful. 

I love the verse in 1 John which says, “See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we would be called children of God; and such we are.” (3.1)

On my phone is a wallpaper. It’s the image from the Hermitage in St Petersburg, Russia of a famous painting by Rembrandt. Tim Keller and Henri Nouwen wrote about the Prodigal God and Nouwen wrote the book, Return of the Prodigal Son about the famous scene from Luke chapter 15. The lost coin, the lost sheep, and finally the Lost Son. 

Listen to these words Yeshua used to describe the lines the Lost Son practices saying before returning home:

^“But when he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired men have more than enough bread, but I am dying here with hunger! I will get up and go to my father, and will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in your sight; I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me as one of your hired men.”’ (Luke 15.17-19)

Yeshua was teaching to a crowd of folks but look how Luke describes who they are: “Now all the tax collectors and the sinners were coming near Him to listen to Him. Both the Pharisees and the scribes began to grumble, saying, “This man receives sinners and eats with them.” (Luke 15.1-2)

So when Yeshua teaches about the Prodigal Son and his Father, he is giving a lesson to the tax collectors and sinners. His is a ministry of love and grace. 

Philip Yancey wrote my favourite book besides the Bible back in 1997, he published What’s so amazing about grace. The opening story is powerful

(READ—“church? Why would I ever go there?...)

But God is our Father and he is ever reaching out to bring us to himself. 

That’s who the Father is. 

BUT WAIT, there’s more. He is OUR Father. I don’t know about you, but I love gathering with God’s people. I enjoy singing in church. I like men’s Bible studies and fellowship groups. I even like playing pickleball with other believers. 70 times in the Newer Testament the phrase “one another” is used. You really can’t miss this. We need one another in our attempt to know God as Father. We are each not an only child. We are a family.

Bailey shows us this on page 101, “The Lord’s Prayer affirms the critical role of the community in which this title, Father is used. “The worshiper is obliged to look down the pew and across the world and see brothers and sisters in every land. Only in the unity of the family of God is the title, “Our Father” legitimately invoked.

Too many Christians have isolated themselves from the Body of Christ. We owe it to ourselves and to the others to be with them, to pray with them, to confess with them… He is Our Father.”

Who art in heaven

Then Yeshua makes the intimate and communal opening phrase into a conundrum. “Who art in heaven.” It stands to reason that intimacy and distance are usually not related. Oh, of course, ‘absence makes the heart grow fonder’ says the poet, but when most of us think in terms of closeness in relationships, we think of closeness in geography and distance as well. If God is in heaven, even the heavens, then how can he be with us?

Of course, the Psalmist wrote “Whom have I in heaven but Thee, and besides Thee I desire nothing on earth.” (Ps. 73.25) The location of heaven is never clarified, but wherever it is, that’s where Asaph, author of Psalm 73, imagines God to be. And most children in your Sunday school class or in your neighbourhood would answer “God is up there” whilst pointing to the sky. So the imminent God is transcendent, and therein is the rub. How can he possibly do that unless He is triune and by his Spirit, he does this. We will hear again about the ‘now and not yet’ Kingdom, and this is a prime introduction to that theme. 

Suffice it to say there is a measure of optimism here, and it reminded me of Robert Browning’s famous poem. “Pippa’s Song” which ends with "God's in his heaven; all's right with the world.” It represents a naive or optimistic perspective that despite personal hardships or worldly chaos, a higher power maintains ultimate order and goodness.

Holy is his name

The prayer continues with “Hallowed be thy name.” This is a prayer, a petition for someone or everyone to take God’s name, not in vanity, but in honour. It’s the opposite of the 3^rd commandment of not taking the name of the Lord in vain. The Kaddish, the Jewish prayer most often associated wrongly with dead people, begins with these words, “Yitgadal v’yitkadash sh’mei raba” (Magnified and sanctified be his great name). Such a similar sound to the Lord’s Prayer. Yitkadash, sanctified. Or in the words of Yeshua, hallowed be. If there were a listing of words that might be identified with God, asked of people outside a movie theatre or shopping centre, I imagine holy would be among the top 5. 

And this is a key part/ aspect of the prayer. It’s a petition that God’s name be holy among others. In other words, yes, he’s holy in himself, but can his name become hallowed?  

Bailey zooms in on the passage in the prophet Ezekiel. He helps us see the structure ABCABC (see page 108), but again and more importantly, we must highlight the reality that God is to make his own name holy. And how does he do that? By making us to represent him on the earth, by our living a holy life, and bringing others to know him. 

“Let them praise Your great and awesome name; Holy is He.” (Ps 99.3) Or then the inverse is found in Ezekiel. “As for you, O house of Israel,” thus says the Lord GOD, “Go, serve everyone his idols; but later you will surely listen to Me, and My holy name you will profane no longer with your gifts and with your idols.” (20.39)

What we do, therefore is what either sanctifies or maligns (profanes) the name of the Lord. When we ask God to make his name holy, it is a statement of our own surrender to him, in faith, that his life will shine forth in us and through us. 

Here’s how it works. We actively admit our own inabilities and honestly surrender our lack AND our supply to the One who has it all under control. When we are weak, then we are strong. (2 Cor. 12.10)

Bailey asks the question, “Can love and holiness come together?” For that, I recommend the book that was published during COVID-19, by Dane Ortlund of Chicago. The title is Gentle and Lowly.  The core message of the book explores the character of Jesus, specifically focusing on his "gentle and lowly" heart as described in Matthew 11:29. It aims to comfort Christians who feel that God is perpetually disappointed or frustrated with them due to their sins and failures. The theological basis that Ortlund argues is that the "deepest heart" of Jesus for his people is one of tender love, mercy, and compassion, rather than reluctant saving. The book heavily features insights from Puritan writers, such as Thomas Goodwin, John Bunyan, and John Calvin.

For years, even decades, I got it wrong. Ortlund helped me see it clearly. When we read of Jesus being a mediator between God and man (Read Galatians 3), I used to think that God the Father was the Angry, Olympic score-keeping Deity, the Disappointed God who almost gave up on me. And I thought that Jesus was a go-between, saying something like, “Come on, Dad, let’s give Bob one more try.” And I would barely sneak across the line. 

But that’s not it at all. Yeshua mediates God’s love to us. He longs for us to know God fully. He is the image of the invisible God. Everything I know about the Father, I see in Yeshua. He is pleading with me to rest in the Father’s love. He mediates the mercy and grace, the Gentle and Lowly one offers himself for me, day after day. He ever lives to make intercession for us. (Hebrews 7.25) Interceding, like Aaron with censers sparing the people of Israel (Numbers 16.46-49) after almost 15,000 people died in rebellion. 

Yeshua is not arguing with the Father on our behalf; he’s arguing with us to join him in the Father’s love. 

Now the painting of Father embracing the prodigal son which hangs in Russia’s Hermitage makes sense. Now God’s grace makes sense. Now love and holiness can come together!

“The cross is God’s perfect resolution to this agony,” as Bailey says.

Five Final Summary Thoughts from tonight:

1)   God is the reason we live and move and have our being and he longs to be with us, tonight in Singapore and some of us in Australia, and wherever you are.

2)   God is our Father, not only mine only, but ours. We are in community together with God as our Father, not our Guru or Shaman. It’s a personal relationship but not a private one.

3)   The cross is God’s perfect resolution to the agony of a loving Father separated from a sinful humanity.

4)   It is God’s Word and God’s heart which together inform the words of Yeshua

5)   Prayer is acknowledging that there is a God, and you are not He.